How to practice take off at home

November 16 2021, by PTY LTDCroch AU, 9 min reading time

The take off is one of the rare techniques that surfers can practice and improve any time they wish to. In this article, we will give you advice on how to practice your take off at home. Here's how you can get ready to maximize the efficiency of your practice.

The take off is one of the rare techniques that surfers can practice and improve any time they wish to. In this article, we will give you advice on how to practice your take off at home. Here's how you can get ready to maximize the efficiency of your practice. You will need tape and you may need a surfboard or yoga mat, a mirror and a phone or a camera.

First, choose on what surface you want to lay on when practicing. You can use a finless surfboard like a poam board, so that you don't damage a more fragile surfboard by repeatedly jumping on it. If you have an old short board or a fish that you don't care too much about, you can also use that. If you mostly ride small surfboards, this will make it easier to get a clear idea of where your feet are landing on the board. You don't need to practice on a surfboard though, you can do it on a yoga mat or directly on the floor. Use your tape to make a straight vertical line, even on the floor or on the yoga mat or on the surfboard if it doesn't have a stringer.

Next, place your feet over the vertical line in your stand position. The distance in between your feet should slightly be wider than your shoulder width. Once you see where your feet are positioned, place a horizontal tape line on those spots as if they were going through the middle of your feet. If you're practicing on the surfboard with the tail pad, only put a horizontal tape over the line where your front foot is. These lines will help you analyze if your feet are in the correct position after your take off. Also, the front horizontal line is where you will place your hand whilst lying on your stomach, getting ready to do your take off. For any take off technique, you'll start in the same prone position at first. Your hands will be flat under your pictorials over the front horizontal line. Your legs together, and your body centered over the vertical tape line or the surfboard stringer. By putting a mirror in front of you, you'll be able to see how you look once you've done your take off and correct your body's position or stands if necessary. Another tool that can help you get a clearer vision on how you pop up is a phone or a camera. Filming yourself ideally in slow motion has the advantage of showing you exactly what you're doing from the different angles. Now, let's see how to analyze your take offs. If you practice in front of a mirror, you'll be able to know if your body's position after take off is similar to this. Looking towards where you want to go. Your left hand should be over your left rail, your right hand over your right rail. Your knee should be bent and your upper body should not be bending over.

When looking down at your feet, they should be centered over the vertical tape line or stringer, meaning half your foot to the left and half to the right. Your feet should also be near the horizontal tape lines you have placed earlier. Note that if, for example, both feet are slightly more forward or backwards from the horizontal lines, this is not necessarily a big issue. Compared to having both feet off center of the vertical line. What you do want to avoid is landing with both feet inside the horizontal lines or outside of them. If you did this in the water, you wouldn't be landing in the optimal stance, and you would have to readjust your feet when riding the wave. A mirror is great for you to check your position after you've done your pop up, but videos are really the number one tool to analyze your take offs in depth.

Often, surfers aren't aware of certain bad habits, such as using their toes for the standard pop up technique. We recommend to learn the following techniques by first doing them slowly. Taking more time to think about each step if you need to. By cutting your take offs into phases and filming yourself, it might be easy to analyze your technique on video. Studies have shown by gradually increasing the speed of quality repetitions, students have better chances of doing them correctly.

As you practice and gain confidence, start increasing the speed of each step until your take offs become more like fast fluid motions. The push up technique is a technique for surfers riding long boards of foam boards and it's one that makes it easy to create space in between your body and the surfboard.

Start from the prone position with your hands underneath your pectorals, look forward towards where you want to go during the take off. First, do a full push up by lifting your whole body up. Your arm should be extended to create space between you and the board. Second, slide your back foot forward towards your opposite knee. And third, slide your front foot forward in between your hands. Once the front foot is brought forward, release your hands from the floor or the surfboard and stand up in your surfing stance. When you feel comfortable with each step and you end up in proper surf stance with your feet in the correct position on the tape lines, you can gradually start accelerating each step at your own rhythm. If it helps, repeat these words in your mind: push up, back foot, front foot, surf stands. Doing multiple take offs, for example, ten in a row if you can, will help you do them faster and with more confidence as the movement will come more automated. Using the knees to take off could be considered if you have strength of mobility limitations that make it very difficult for you to use other techniques in this article. It is the slowest technique to get to your feet but it requires less strength and flexibility.

Start from the prime position with your hands underneath your pectorals. Look forward towards where you want to go during your take off. Push your upper body up to create a bit of space to slide both your knees up towards where your belly button was laying on the floor, or on your surfboard, Then bring your front foot forward in between your hands. Finally release your hands from the floor or the surfboard and stand in your surf stance. When you feel comfortable with each step and you end up in the proper surf stance where your feet in the correct position on the tape lines, you can gradually start accelerating each step in your own rhythm. If it helps, repeat these words in your mind: push up, slide the knees, front foot, surf stance. Doing multiple take offs, for example, ten in a row, if you can, will help you do them faster and with more confidence, as a movement will become more automated.

The chicken wing technique is very popular among beginners and intermediates, and it is a versatile one that works on any type of surfboard. Start from the prone position with your hands underneath your pectorals, look forward towards where you want to go during the take off, bring your back foot towards the opposite knee by sliding and bending your back knee out towards the side. Then push your whole body upwards with only your hands and your back foot touching the ground or the surfboard. Finally, bring your front foot in between your hands to get into your surf stance. When you feel comfortable with each step and you end up in the proper surf stance with your feet in the correct position on the tape lines, you can start gradually accelerating each step of your own rhythm. If it helps, repeat these words in your mind: back foot chicken wing, push up, front foot, surf stance. Doing multiple take offs, for an example, ten in a row if you can, will help you do the much faster with much more confidence as the movements will become automated.

The standard pop up is the quickest way to get to your feet and it's by far the most commonly used among experienced surfers. Start from the prone position with your hands underneath your pectorals, look forward towards where you want to go during your take off. As you prepare to pop up, make sure you remind yourself of pushing up only with your hands and your knees, not with your toes. You can lift your feet slightly to prevent you from using your toes. Push your upper body up, and use your thighs to lift up from the floor, swing both knees up and forward, and have your back foot land on the tail pad, or where the first horizontal tape line is. Next, push your body upwards to create more space between you and the floor or the surfboard. Finally, bring your front foot in between your hands and get into your surf stance. When you feel comfortable with each of these steps and you end up in the proper surf stance with your feet in the correct position on the tape lines, you can start gradually accelerating each step of your own rhythm. If it helps, repeat these words in your mind: push up, swing the knees to the back foot, front foot, surf stance. Doing multiple take offs, for example, ten in a row if you can, will help you do them faster with more confidence as a movement will become more automated.

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